Tag Archives: Sky Sports

Today’s announcement that F1 coverage will be moved to Sky is nothing short of a disaster. While the BBC retains partial broadcasting control, this deal is a mess and will alienate the casual Formula 1 fan.

First of all, the obvious – a casual fan won’t be paying £610 a year to continue watching the sport. Even the average fans won’t be making that move. This obscene amount of money to be paid to Murdoch’s empire will turn away all but the most die-hard of fans.

Sky is touting “no ads during races” as a feature for their coverage – but it is rumoured that this is simply a ploy to pull viewers in, and ads would return from 2013 onwards.

The only good news is that the BBC will still show 10 races live per year – the others being deferred until the evening time.

However, the actual broadcasting quality of the BBC will still be hurt. Even BBC editor Ben Gallop has stated that “our coverage will not be as comprehensive as it has been in recent years”.

After searching for cuts in all departments, the BBC are probably happy with this decision. Sky will of course be delighted, having added another sport to their profit-driven portfolio. However, everyone involved in this deal seems to have forgotten the fans in this move, mistakenly beliving they will settle for a compromise.

FOTA were touted as the orginisation who could protect the fans’ interests, but it appears that they have no intention of doing so, with Martin Whitmarsh in favour of the move. Bernie Ecclestone, of course, supports this deal, claiming that the overall number of viewers will increase.

With this, it appears as if the fans have no way of opposing this move. In my view, a huge amount of the audience are going to lose out, and may well drift away from F1.

Despite the fact that I consider myself quite the die-hard F1 fan, I will be the first to say that I have no intention of switching to Sky. Even if it means losing out on 50% of live races, the excellent BBC coverage will always be better than whatever ad-ridden garbage is thrown at us by Sky.

Of course, not all fans will share this view. Many will not accept missing out on live races, and similarly will not be able to pay for Sky coverage. This is what many fear of, if this news is to cause people to lose interest in Formula 1.

This will be an important time for the sport. If FOTA are really going to protect the fans, they would want to get a move on.

It has been announced that Sky Sports will take broadcasting control of Formula from the start of 2012 until at leats 2018.

However, the BBC will still be broadcasting races, albeit only 50% of races a year. The races that are not shown live on the BBC will be deferred and shown later that night, but onlt as highlights.

It is understood that the races being shown live by the BBC will include the British and Monaco Grands Prix, as well as the season finale.

Sky will show every practice and qualifying session, as well as the races, but there has been outrage from the fans in the last few hours.

Since there are no plans for pay-per-view F1 broadcasts, British and Irish viewers will be forced to pay up to £610 a year (depending on Sky package) to watch the sport.

The BBC has been under pressure in the last few weeks to make cuts. However, since this move will only save the company £16m a year, there is confusion as to why this decision was made.

A few weeks ago, FOTA team principal Martin Whitmarsh stated that F1 must remain free-to-air:

"It’s crucial to the commercial model of Formula 1 that TV coverage should remain
free-to-air, and therefore universally accessible, and therefore widely consumed
and enjoyed by large numbers of viewers – and the BBC delivers that in the UK."

However, it appears he has made a U-turn on this statement, saying today that he sees this deal as “positive”, and that it will be a “good deal for everyone”.

Despite this, he still believes that his FOTA orginisation should “try and reach out to fans [and] listen to them” – quite the hypocritical statement considering the outrage shown online by fans this afternoon.

Personally, this deal will do no good for the casual fan of F1. While the die-hard fans may make the switch to Murdoch’s TV empire, many will become disillusioned with the sport if this issue is not fixed.

Update: Interesting new details have emerged. Both Sky and the BBC will share on-site facilities, as well as commentary teams, although the presentation teams will be different.

The 10 highlight races that the BBC will show are approx. 75 minutes in length, and will be placed at around 5 or 6 pm at night. There will be a brief introduction and after-race analysis, and the race footage is expected to last 45 or so minutes.